PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Mesquite is the one Texas brush that a mulcher does not finish. Here is why it comes back, what each method costs at our published rates, and how the real jobs have priced out per acre.
Grubbing is the only method that removes mesquite from a property instead of postponing it, and it is priced by the machine day: $3,000 per day plus transport for the dozer or the excavator, one day minimum. On open mesquite flats where a root rake dozer keeps moving, a day covers several acres and the per acre figure lands well under $1,000. In old growth stands where the excavator is working taproots one at a time, a day may not finish an acre. Our documented 12 acre San Antonio grubbing job ran three days at $18,000 to $21,000, about $1,500 to $1,750 an acre with the piles handled in the same contract. Mulching mesquite costs less per pass at $3,000 to $4,000 per machine day, and it is the right answer for pasture you are willing to maintain, but it is a haircut, not a removal.
Every other number on the internet for this question is either a national average that has never seen a Texas thicket or a per acre figure with no density attached. There is no honest single number. What there is, is a day rate, a machine that covers a knowable amount of ground, and a handful of real jobs to calibrate against. That is what this page is.
Honey mesquite keeps its growing points underground. The bud zone sits on the root crown a few inches below the surface, and the taproot below that can run deep enough to find water in a drought that kills everything around it. Cut the trunk, mulch the canopy, burn the top or run a shredder over it, and the plant reads that as pruning. Within two growing seasons the single trunk you removed is a multi stem thicket, denser than what you started with and harder to work through.
That is the whole reason mesquite has its own page. Cedar dies when you cut it, so a mulcher is the complete answer in the Hill Country. Yaupon and huisache resprout but weakly. Mesquite resprouts with enthusiasm, which means the method you choose is really a choice about whether you want to do this once or every few years.
It is also why the cheapest quote is often the most expensive one. A mulching pass over a mesquite pasture at day rates looks good next to a grubbing quote until the third pass, at which point you have paid for the grubbing and still have the mesquite.
| Method | What it does | Does it come back | What it costs | When it is right |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grubbing | Dozer root rake or excavator pulls the crown and taproot; holes closed; ground graded. | No. The crown is gone. | $3,000 per day plus transport, dozer or excavator. One day minimum. | Pasture you want to keep clean, anything that will be plowed, built on, ponded, fenced or driven over. |
| Forestry mulching | Grinds the tree where it stands into mulch; roots stay. | Yes, from the crown, in two to three seasons. | $3,000 per day skid steer with transport included; $4,000 per day plus transport for the high horsepower machine. | Big acreage where a maintenance pass every few years is cheaper than grubbing it all; mixed brush where mesquite is a minority. |
| Individual plant treatment | Landowner applies herbicide to the stem base or leaves, one plant at a time. | Effective on the plants treated, if done right and in the right season. | Your labor and chemical. We do not spray. | Scattered mesquite on otherwise clean pasture; follow up on regrowth after a machine pass. |
| Cut, shred or burn | Removes the top only. | Yes, thicker. | Cheap the first time. | Almost never, unless you are maintaining a lane and expect to repeat it. |
Texas A&M’s Brush Busters program publishes the individual plant methods and the seasons they work in; it is the reference for a landowner doing the follow up by hand. We do not apply herbicide and we do not pretend to. What we do is the machine work, with our own dozers, excavators and mulchers, priced in days you can check.
12 acres, San Antonio, three days, $18,000 to $21,000. Full grubbing of invasive trees and root systems for long term pasture, Tigercat mulcher and a CAT D3 dozer working together, piles mulched in the same contract. That works out to roughly $1,500 to $1,750 an acre and it is the closest thing to a typical number we can honestly publish. The San Antonio grubbing project page has the rest.
2 acres, San Marcos, one day, $7,000 to $8,000. Brush and invasive trees grubbed with a dozer for cattle pasture, the piles mulched on site, the live oaks left for shade. Small tracts pay the one day minimum on each machine, which is why the per acre figure is higher on a two acre job than a twelve acre one.
125 acres, Elgin, 37 days, $120,000 to $130,000. Full mulching of yaupon, mesquite and cedar back to productive pasture. This one was mulched rather than grubbed, at about $1,000 an acre, because on a tract that size the arithmetic favors a mulching pass now and grubbing only the stands that come back. The Elgin pasture reclamation page covers it.
The cost to clear land guide has the full table of documented jobs with acreage, days and per acre figures, and the grubbing page carries the day rates and what moves them.
Density and stem size. Forty mesquite to the acre grub fast; four hundred do not. Young invasion on a pasture that was clean ten years ago is the cheap end. Old growth with trunks you cannot get your hands around is the expensive end, because each taproot is a fight.
The machine. On open flats a root rake dozer keeps moving and covers ground. Near fences, structures, keeper trees or a creek, the excavator is the right tool because it lifts one plant at a time without tearing up what is next to it, and it is slower. Most jobs use both: dozer on the open ground, excavator on the edges.
Disposal. Grubbed mesquite comes out with a root ball full of dirt. Stacking and burning where legal is the cheap end, hauling is the expensive end, and mulching the tops while grubbing the crowns is usually the middle. Our quotes say which one is in the price.
Ground. Blackland clay around Dallas, Waco and Temple grubs well when dry and not at all when wet. Rocky ground west of I-35 is slower on the blade. Sandy ground is easy on everything.
What comes after. Grubbed ground is bare and rough. It needs the holes closed and a grading pass before it is pasture again, which is included in our grubbing days, and it needs grass. The pasture reclamation page covers the sequence from thicket to grazing, and the agriculture guide covers the ag valuation side.
If the ground is going to be built on, plowed, ponded or driven over, grub it. There is no second option. If it is pasture, the question is size and patience. On a small tract of solid mesquite, grubbing is usually the right call because the day count is small and you are done. On a big one, the honest comparison is one grubbing pass against a mulching pass every two to three years, and the answer depends on how long you plan to own the place. On big tracts with mixed brush we usually mulch everything at day rates and grub only the stands that show they mean it; the 125 acre Elgin tract was mulched at day rates for exactly that reason. The mulcher vs bulldozer guide goes into the machines, and the after forestry mulching guide covers what the first two years look like on mulched mesquite ground.
There is no single number, because density decides it. Our dozer and excavator rate is $3,000 per day plus transport with a one day minimum. A documented 12 acre San Antonio grubbing job ran $18,000 to $21,000, about $1,500 to $1,750 an acre with the piles handled. Light young stands on open ground come in well below that; old growth comes in above it.
No. Mulching removes the top and the plant resprouts from the root crown below ground within two or three seasons, usually as a multi stem thicket. It is a maintenance method for mesquite, not a removal. Cedar is different: it dies when cut.
Grubbing, which pulls the root crown and taproot with a dozer root rake or an excavator. Individual plant herbicide treatment by the landowner is the other permanent method for scattered plants. Cutting, shredding and burning all make it come back thicker.
The bud zone that regrows is a few inches below the surface on the root crown, and the taproot below it can run deep. Grubbing does not need to chase the whole taproot; it needs to take the crown, which is where the regrowth comes from.
Yes, and on open flats a root rake dozer is the fastest way to grub it. Near fences, keeper trees, structures or creeks an excavator is better because it lifts one plant at a time. Most jobs use both.
No. We do not apply herbicide. Texas A&M’s Brush Busters program publishes the individual plant treatment methods for landowners who want to do follow up by hand after a machine pass.
It is stacked and either burned where legal, mulched in place with the forestry mulcher, or hauled if the site requires it. Disposal is a real line in the price and our quotes say which option is included.
Tell us the acreage and what the ground is for. We will tell you mulch or grub, the machine days, and a number, usually the same day.